Prehospital and disaster medicine
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Prehosp Disaster Med · Dec 2019
Medical Students Can be Trained to be Life-Saving First Aid Instructors for Laypeople: A Feasibility Study from Gaza, Occupied Palestinian Territory.
Bystanders can improve the outcome in emergencies by activating the "chain of survival." Gaza's (Palestine) population has little, if any, access to training in Basic Life Support (BLS) and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). The goal was to recruit local medical students to be life-saving first aid instructors, and have them train 3,000 laypeople in BLS and CPR. ⋯ It is feasible to recruit local medical students for practical BLS and CPR trainings targeting laypeople in communities under stress. The training impact on local resilience and patients' outcomes need further studies.
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Prehosp Disaster Med · Dec 2019
Case ReportsTransient ST Segment Elevation Caused by Intracoronary Thrombus after Acute Carbon Monoxide Poisoning.
Carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning is the most common cause of death and injury among all poisonings. Myocardial injury is detected in one-third of CO poisonings. In this Case Report, a previously healthy 41-year-old man was referred for CO poisoning. ⋯ This is the first reported case with transient ST segment elevation associated with acute coronary thrombus caused by CO poisoning. It may be recommended that patients with CO poisoning should be followed-up with a 12-lead ECG monitor or 24-hour ECG Holter monitoring, even if they show no cardiac symptoms and echocardiography shows no wall motion abnormality. Early coronary angiography upon detection of such dynamic ECG changes in these recordings as ST segment elevation can reduce the risk of myocardial infarction (MI) and mortality in these patients.
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Prehosp Disaster Med · Dec 2019
Clinical TrialThe Impact of Treatment with Continuous Positive Airway Pressure on Acute Carbon Monoxide Poisoning.
Approximately 50,000 patients per year present at emergency departments (EDs) because of carbon monoxide (CO) intoxication. The hypothesis of this study was that the half-life of CO and the regression period of complaints could be reduced more rapidly by applying oxygen with the Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) modality using a non-invasive mechanical ventilator. ⋯ The use of CPAP was determined to more rapidly reduce COHb level as opposed to high-flow oxygen therapy. It is also thought that it may enable earlier discharge by reducing the duration of the emergency follow-up since it provides a faster improvement in the symptoms of the patients.
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Prehosp Disaster Med · Oct 2019
Meta AnalysisThe Effect of Prehospital Epinephrine in Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
Epinephrine has been recommended for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) resuscitation for nearly one century, but its efficacy and safety remain unclear in the literature. The primary aim of this review was to determine whether epinephrine increases the return of spontaneous circulation in OHCA patients. ⋯ This meta-analysis suggests that the prehospital use of epinephrine increases return of spontaneous circulation, transport of patients to hospital, and survival to hospital discharge for OHCA. However, no significant effects on favorable neurologic function at hospital discharge were demonstrated. The general quality of evidence ranged from moderate to high.
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Prehosp Disaster Med · Oct 2019
Core Disaster Medicine Education (CDME) for Emergency Medicine Residents in the United States.
Disaster Medicine (DM) education for Emergency Medicine (EM) residents is highly variable due to time constraints, competing priorities, and program expertise. The investigators' aim was to define and prioritize DM core competencies for EM residency programs through consensus opinion of experts and EM professional organization representatives. ⋯ This expert-consensus-driven, prioritized ranking of DM topics may serve as the core curriculum for US EM residency programs.